Best order of learning things?

I've taken out some chess books from the library and I now have Chessmaster 11, but where do I start first? I have 2 books by susan polgar filled with hundreds of tactics puzzles, 3 books filled with different openings and popular opening traps, and 2 more books based more on chess thinking (The Art of Logical Thinking and How to Choose a Chess Move).

So my question is what do I tackle first, what is the most efficient way to start getting serious about chess?

tactic's and mating patterns

If you have all that stuff, I want to come hang out with you.  I'm new too.  I only have 2 books and chessmaster.

Tactics then maybe try to get and endgame book. tactics and endgames are the bread and butter of chess.

The best place to start is learning how to win a chess game. The chess game is won when the opposing king is attacked with more force than he has defending him. All chess ideas will spring from this. The whole purpose of making any move is to upset the balance of force so that you can attack the opposing king with unstoppable force. The best place to start chess study is the endgame. This will allow you to learn how to apply an advantage in force and you will get a feel for the power and movement of the individual pieces.  

You can always do tactics (forever essentially) while studying something else, like opening basics or middlegame. Tactics don't interfere with anything else. Heck, during a week you can study everything you have on hand, just like the curriculum in school.

Familiarise yourself with all mate-in-1's. Then mate-in-2's. And so on. Eventually, by working backwards in this way, you'll reach Openings. It sounds crazy, but it just might work.

The secret to chess is to study fundamentals. I, in my own studies, did what many a player does and I jumped into the pool before learning how to swim. It is important to really get at the heart of the matter. Learn the elements of chess. One book that opened my eyes was Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan. It seems overly simple, I know, but my own approach to chess starts with asking how the chess game is won, and then looking for the answers for how to accomplish that. It is not enough to say, 'Oh, I just kill his king, then I'm the winner!'. You have to truly understand, at a mechanical level, what is happening when you win a chess game. It is from this that you build true understanding of chess.